Dr Manuel Ramos

Manu Ramos’ work engages with the interrelation between the political and the image/sound pair in practices including film, video and television. Their current research concerns the adventures of disobedient spectatorships (queer and trans re-imaginings, autonomous film clubs, film pedagogies).  

Academic qualifications

• 2014 PhD in Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London
• 2006 MA in Contemporary Art Theory, Goldsmiths, University of London
• 2003 BA in Art History, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Teaching

Ramos is currently teaching the following modules: Modernities (BA Year 1), Beyond Boundaries (BA Year 1), Emancipating Images and Sounds (BA Year 2). They are also convening the BA History of Art Dissertation and BA History of Art and Fine Arts Dissertation modules and they work in the MA Contemporary Art Theory as a tutor and dissertation supervisor. 

Ramos was the co-programme leader of the PhD in Visual Cultures for the academic year 2021-22. 

They have previously taught in the MA in Contemporary Art Theory (Dissonant Images, Auditions) and Introduction to Art History (BA Year 1).

They were a visiting lecturer in the BA and MA Fine Arts at the City and Guilds Art School, London (2011-2015). 

Areas of supervision

Ramos welcomes research proposals investigating historical or current practices and theories of the image/sound engaged in emancipatory politics from the fields of cinema, video, radio, television, the Internet. 

They have examined PhD thesis at Universidad Carlos III, Madrid (2016); Goldsmiths, University of London (2019); Universidad Complutense, Madrid (2019); Universitat Autonoma, Barcelona (2019); University of South Wales, Cardiff (2020). 

Featured work

Selected Publications

• 'Images That Sweat - On the Spectacular Realism of Lino Brocka’s Macho Dancer', Third Text - Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture, 178 Vol 36 5, pp.1-16, 2022
• 'The Most Beautiful Ever Made', MIRAJ Moving Image Review & Art Journal, 11.1, 2022, pp.88-97
• 'An Accidental Document of the Beginnings of the Civil War in Madrid: Notes on Carne de Fieras', La Furia Umana, N.30, January 2017
• ‘Nombrar, Resistir, de los títulos en el cine de Straub y Huillet', in Manuel Asin and Chema Gonzalez (eds.), Jean-Marie Straub y Danièle Huillet: Hacer la revolucion es volver a colocar en su sitio cosas muy antiguas pero olvidadas, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2016, pp.127-143
• ‘The Cinema of No’, La Furia Umana (edited volume, N.28, 2016)
• ‘People Fever, The Popular Passions of Peter Watkins' La Commune (Paris 1871)’, Screen, special edition on television studies edited by Karen Lury, Vol. 57, No. 2, Summer 2016, pp.197-217
• ‘Actors Simply Explode, To Act in the Cinema of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet’, Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture and Media Studies, 92, 2016, pp.93-117  
• ‘Names in Dispute, What Titles Can Do in the Films of Straub and Huillet’, La Furia Umana, 26, December 2015
• ‘The Oxidation of the Documentary, The Politics of Rust in Wang Bing’s Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks’, Third Text - Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture, vol 29 (1-2), 2015, pp.1-13

Film programming

• Flower Children in the Blinding Light, The 1960s Films of Anthony Stern, (co-curated with William Fowler), Bfi Essentials, National Film Theatre, London, 16 September 2014
• 5 Communes, Goldsmiths, University of London, 2012
• Factory Trouble, GOldsmiths, University of London, 2011

Awards, grants 

• 2010 PhD Fee Waiver Bursary, Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths
• 2007-2009 Doctoral Grant from the Mutua Madrid Foundation
• 2002-2003 Erasmus Grant

Conference Participation, Invited Talks and Workshops

• 'La Risa de la Hiena, Sonidos e Imagenes Anticoloniales en el Cine de Djibril Diop Mambety´, El Cine y sus Metaforas (organised by Dr. COnstanza Nieto, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia, 25 November 2022
• 'Straub and Huillet in Buti - Acting and Working Collaboratively', workshop co-organised with Romano Guelfi, Goethe Institut, London, 28 April 2019
• Introduction of a special screening of Workers, Peasants (Straub-Huillet, 2001) and chairing of a discussion after the projection, ICA, London, 26 April 2019 
• Introduction of a special screening of Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (Straub-Huillet, 1968), National Film Theatre, London, 26 April 2017
• Chair of the panel discussion dedicated to self-organisation with Janna Graham, Manuela Zechner and Paolo Plotegher, Permissions talks series, Goldsmiths, London, spring 2016
• ‘Peter Nestler and the Ambitions of an International Cinema, guest speaker, The Films of Peter Nestler, Goethe Institut/Tate Modern, London, November 16 2012
• Chair of the panel discussion dedicated to the film Land and Bread by Luis Buñuel, with Dr Jo Evans and Dr Sarah Wright, Going Back to Reality: Picasso and the Canvas in Motion, Instituto Cervantes, London, May 4 2012
• 'The Names-in-Dispute of Contemporary Cinema', The Many: History, Theory and Politics, New University of Lisbon, 2012
• ‘Factory Trouble’, panel organizer and speaker, Athens Biennial - Monodrome, Athens, December 2 2011
• ‘Still Here, Here Again, Godard, Farocki and the cinema’s centenary’, The Archive: Memory, Cinema, Video and the Image of the Present, XVIII International Film Studies Conference, University of Udine, 2011
• ‘The Oxidation of the Documentary’, Documentary Now!, University of Westminster, London, 2011
• ‘From Instituted Evidence to Singular Irreducibilities’, Visible Evidence XVII, Bogazici University, Istanbul, 2010
• ‘Derrida’s War of the Name’, INC Continental Philosophy Research Group, Goldsmiths, London, March 9 2010
• ‘A Disintegrating Document, on Tie Xi Qu, West of the Rails’, Relocating Media Conference, Network of European Cinema Studies (NECS), University of Lund, Sweden, 2009
• ‘Image And Emancipation, Between The Political And The Cinematic In The Work Of Jacques Rancière’, Philosophy and Film Conference, University of West England, Bristol, 2009
• ‘Image And Emancipation, Between The Political And The Cinematic In The Work Of Jacques Rancière’, Philosophy and Film Conference, University of West England, Bristol, 2008